Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register ATHENS, April 7 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s speech to the Greek parliament has sparked outrage from opposition parties after a man who identified himself as a Greek member of Ukraine’s supranationalist Azov order appeared on video. Zelensky spoke of the destruction of the Russian-besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol – home to thousands of Greeks – and called on Athens for help. read more During his speech he showed a video with a message from a man who identified himself as a member of the Azov Battalion, an extreme right-wing militia that now belongs to the National Guard of Ukraine. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “I am addressing you as a Greek by origin. I am Michael, my grandfather fought against the Nazis … I am participating in the defense of Ukraine through the Azov Order,” he said. Zelenski, who was invited to address the Greek parliament by Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was applauded by lawmakers present in the chamber. But the video provoked reactions on social media and an angry reaction from left-wing parties. Shortly after the speech, the leader of the left-wing SYRIZA party, Alexis Tsipras, said that the incident was a provocation. “Solidarity with the Ukrainian people is a given. But the Nazis can have no say in parliament,” he wrote on Twitter. His tweet had gained more than 3,900 likes by Thursday afternoon. A spokesman for the Greek government said the message from a member of the Azov Battalion was “incorrect and inappropriate”. Western countries say the Moscow invasion, the largest attack on a European country since World War II, was completely unprovoked. Russia says it is conducting a “special operation” to disarm and “demilitarize” its neighbors. The Ukrainian embassy in Athens said that the Azov constitution, created as a far-right group in 2014, has been reformed and integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine. “For many years Russia has been trying to ‘plant’ in Greek minds the myth that the ‘Azov’ regiment is an independent paramilitary unit operating in Mariupol,” he said. “The video … has nothing to do with those Nazi acts committed by the Russians on our land and against our people.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reportage by Rene Maltezou and Carolina Tagari. Edited by Sandra Maler Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.